Green

Abstract

We insist upon “green space”, but the term’s vague cast brings little into focus. In this thesis I search out what it is that we look for in green space. I consider some ways, within our North American context, that we interact with it, represent it, speak about it and write about it. Drawing together evidence from a diverse range of sources in myth and mapping, poetry, classical philosophy, feminist theory, language, and personal experience, I find enigmatic but persistent geometries of desire binding us to the notion of green space.

These desires for green space manifest themselves in relationships of practical dependence, imaginative dependence, violence, and love. But most of all green space is at work, wherever it emerges, at the core of our becoming-other.